LinkedIn repays nearly $6 million in unpaid overtime

LinkedIn is all about jobs — finding jobs, connecting with jobs, and, according to a recent announcement following a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigation, not adequately paying for jobs.

The social media site announced on August 4 that it has paid nearly $6 million in back wages and damages to 359 current and former employees who were not properly paid overtime between February 2012 and February 2014. The company must also inform managers about proper overtime pay regulations and protect against retaliation towards those who raise workplace issues.

LinkedIn said the DOL investigation focused on sales workers in company offices in California, Illinois and New York. Government investigators said that LinkedIn fully cooperated with the investigation.

“This practice harms workers, denies them the wages they have rightfully earned and takes away time with families,” said DOL district director Susana Blanco to the Wall Street Journal.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, some employees, such as salespeople, can be exempt from overtime laws. However, LinkedIn said that this particular error came about as a technical error rather than one of mischaracterized exemptions.

“This was a function of not having the right tools in place for some employees and their managers to track hours properly,” said a company spokesman to the Journal. “LinkedIn has made every effort possible to ensure each impacted employee has been made whole.”

LinkedIn recently ran into some labor flack for the lack of diversity within its workforce; the company self-reported in June that 61 percent of its roughly 5,400 employees were male, and 53 percent were white.

However, help solving these issues could be on the way from the legal department. In July, LinkedIn hired prominent tech lawyer Michael J. Callahan as the company’s newest general counsel, replacing original company GC Erika Rottenberg. Callahan headed Yahoo’s legal department between 2003 and 2012, and he recently served as GC of online marketplace Auction.com.

Assistant Editor

Zach Warren

Zach Warren is Assistant Editor of InsideCounsel magazine, where he oversees online content submissions and administers InsideCounsel's enewsletters. Zach specializes in new media and multimedia...